Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 178
178 to the Companions of the Holy Prophet s as. It is established on the basis of Hadith that this sect will be the Community of the Promised Messiah as , because the Holy Prophet s as said that he did not know whether the first or the latter part of this ummah was the best. The Holy Prophet’s words ‘those who follow my exam - ple and the example of my Companions’ refer to the followers of the Promised Messiah as. This has to be so because no Community can be like the Companions of the Holy Prophet s as unless they are directly taught by someone sent by God. It follows from the above Traditions that after the disappear - ance of knowledge and faith from the Muslim ummah, Allah has promised to revive Islam through the Promised Messiah. Consequently, anyone who claims to be the Promised Messiah should re-establish the true teaching of Islam and present the true knowledge of the Holy Quran. If he fails in this, he cannot be the Promised Messiah. On the other hand, anyone who, in the tumultuous times of the latter days, manages to purify Islam of people’s misconceptions, and reveals its excellence to the world, and lives up to the prophecy of the Holy Prophet s as that he and his followers would follow in his and his Companions’ footsteps, such a person must be the Promised Messiah. This also opens for us another way to judge anyone who claims to be the Promised Messiah. That is, can we ascertain that Islam has in fact deviated completely from its original form? Secondly, has this claimant in effect presented Islam to the world in its pristine form? As for the fact that Islam has been disfigured and alienated from its essence, no reasonable person will deny this because God’s practical testimony shows that Muslims are no longer Muslims. The very image of Islam today, which does not satisfy even the